On Saturday 29 January, Aafno FM had a listeners’ poem competition. Project Coordinator Vijay says: “We received 70 poems and 4 persons won prizes. Radios were distributed to the participants and also some villagers.” Thank you for your support of the Send a Radio campaign that funded the local purchase of radios in Nepal. Aafno FM also hosted a live response programme asking listeners for 5 good points and 5 weak points about Aafno FM.

And the listeners say…
Many listeners contacted the presenters during the live response programme on Aafno FM Okhaldunga. Here are some of their comments about good points:

• “The Agriculture programme gave us many new ideas of farming.”
  
• “The Health programme helped us to go to hospitals.”
  
• “The radio has given equal opportunities to all. All can feel that it is ours.”
  
• “Thanks for the Bible programme. We could learn more about God.”
  
• “We got opportunity to make new friends through your radio.”

Here are listeners' comments on weak points (with Vijay's comments in parentheses):

• “Time of radio broadcast is not enough.” (We have only 10 hours and a commercial station has 18 hours.)
  
• “Programme for all level should be included.” (More for youth, children, religious programmes)
  
• “You should go online as other radios are already online.” (We think we are here for the community and don’t think we should go online for now.)
  
• “You should have at least one other telephone line. Most of the time, your line is busy.” (Many listeners call and we have only one telephone line.)
  
• “You should not stop broadcasting without notice.” (Our radio was disturbed due to the power supply. The mixer and generator are now fixed.)

Working by candlelight?
“The ‘load shedding’ (scheduled power outage) has recently increased to 12 hours a day,” says Sean MacKenzie, Ministry Specialist. “It’s especially hard when you want to work but electricity is only available at night to power the computer. Also, water has become very scarce with only a once a week delivery to the house via mains supply.” This week a BBC News article, Nepal TV station uses lantern to highlight power cuts, explains the difficult situation there.